Real Event Fear

Yes indeed. I am sorry you are dealing with this - and I can empathize with you. With ERP therapy and lots of practice I have learned how to live with the intrusive thoughts. Not knowing where you are in your ERP journey I will give you an example of how I might handle your situation. If this seems like it is too difficult then don’t do it - I am in recovery but I want to respect the fact that not everyone is there and so I offer my suggestion only. When I get the intrusive thought that I am going ti be humiliated and shamed for something that has happened in my past, I acknowledge the thought as intrusive and then I go into response prevention mode. I might say something like well that’s interesting or thanks for nothing ocd. Or I will agree with the thought and say yes this could definitely happen but all I have is this moment and guess what it is not happening in this moment so I am going ti live my life and IF you are right ocd I will need only deal with it then. Until then I live in the present moment because that is all that I have. Again, this is not easy and I have gotten there with a lot of practice l, but it works. Does the anxiety disappear - nope. What has changed is my response - the anxiety is still there it is just that I don’t give it the weight it once had. I hope this helps you.

I can definitely see how this could be triggering. Remember that these fears are just like any other OCD thought. OCD is working to get your attention. It plays to what it knows will scare you. Say something back to the thought like, “maybe I will be publicly shamed, maybe I won’t. Maybe I will get publicly cancelled, maybe I won’t. Worrying about it won’t help me figure it out.” Sitting in this uncertainty will help ease the power of OCD. This is a great article with some helpful info :) https://www.turningpointpsychology.ca/blog/real-event-ocd?format=amp

Yea I feel like cancel culture is a big trigger for me

Yup….